Friday, August 12, 2005

Oquawka fire under investigation

The Hawk Eye states that Oquawka Fire Chief Hal Jern calls the two-house blaze the other night, "One of the hottest structure fires I've ever seen", and the cause of that fire is now under investigation. It required the mutual aid call go out, to get help from the fire departments of Biggsville, Stronghurst, Keithsburg, West Burlington, and Burlington, as well as a local business owner's boat to pump Mississippi river water onto the blaze (I'm surprised there was enough water from the river to help, what with this drought ;-) ).

Since the fire started in Cezar's house, there are plenty of possibilities for cause, from bitter neighbors playing with matches to amateur wiring to any number of other things. If it was anything other than a reasonable accident, then there will be all hell to pay, over the 2 firefighters who had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation. The local gossip is all over the map on this, so we'll just have to wait and see.